Sudan is the second largest country in sub-Saharan Africa, with an area of 1,878,000 km2, compared to Israel at 20,770 km2, (roughly 1% of the area of Sudan.) Sudan’s population is 49.4 million. (Israel: 9.3 million, about 20% of Sudan). Sudan is in the midst of a civil war, in which at least 16,000 people […]
I was prompted to write this blog by the ads I see asking for donations for aid to Gaza. We keep hearing about the impending famine in Gaza, or lack of medicaI treatment, but I’m not hearing anything about famine among the Hamas soldiers. They are receiving food and medical treatment. It’s pretty clear that […]
This blog is essentially a lesson in Statistics 101 — one that you won’t see in any Statistics textbook. Lesson One in most statistics courses starts with means and medians, while Lesson Two moves on to standard deviations. This blog does almost the same, but starts with a question that many people are asking: “Are […]
Have you had a peak experience? Peak experiences have been described by many authors, for example, Kendra Cherry in Verywellmind.com (2023). Fulfillment: Peak experiences generate positive emotions and are intreinsically rewarding. Significance: Peak experiences lead to an increase in personal awareness and understanding and can serve as a turning point in a person’s life. Spiritual: […]
“Power is perceived as a reward for high stocks of merit rather than an outgrowth of a popular mandate.” This quote comes from Sebastian Strangio’s Hun Sen’s Cambodia, in his description of the age-old power structure in Cambodia. A well-connected Cambodian billionaire may have become rich on the back of all sorts of ill-gotten gains, […]
Identical twins have different fingerprints. Let that sink in. They have identical genes and DNA, and yet their bodies are different. Fingerprints are therefore not entirely determined by genes. On the other hand, those twins didn’t learn from society to have different fingerprints. Neither a ‘nature’ theory (i.e. genes) nor a ‘nurture’ theory (i.e. learning) can […]
A friend of mine once told me, “If a school calls itself an International School, it isn’t.” Developing countries around the world have imitated the Western model of higher education. This imitation can go to extremes, such as the graduation procession of the professors in their caps and gowns (even accompanied by Elgar’s “Pomp and […]
I wrote the blog about Hamas’ objectives almost two months ago. In light of recent events, I want to examine how it is turning out. The recent Iranian attempt to bombard Israel is evidence that Hamas is succeeding in its mission to draw the international players into the anti-Israel fight. But maybe Hamas is failing. […]
Why did Hamas invade Israel? Surely they didn’t hope to take any territory, and even more surely, they didn’t hope to defeat Israel. After raping women and causing mayhem and as much Israel outrage as possible, they went back into Gaza. What did they hope to gain by that? Did anyone think that Israel would […]
In recent years, the evangelical right wing has embraced attitudes and behaviors 180 degrees antithetical to the teachings of Jesus. Where Jesus taught people to ‘love their neighbor’, evangelicals hate blacks, Hispanics, Jews, LGBTQs, immigrants, and anyone who does not look or think exactly like them. This behavior is pointed out and condemned a lot […]